The Richardson family Ian Pearce June 2009 The Richardson family seems to have originated in Ayton. They were early converts to the Society of Friends, and were important in the development of the leather industry. Thomas Richardson was especially important in village history; having made his fortune establishing a bill-broking business in London, he financed the setting up of the North of England Agricultural School and the British School, and built Cleveland Lodge. They can be seen. 1 Introduction and summary The Richardson family, spanning many generations, played a significant role in Great Ayton’s history and, indeed, the history of the north-east of England. There are two main sources for information about them: the Great Ayton Parish Register from 1600, and the history of the Quaker Richardsons written by Anne Boyce in 1889. Their genealogy is complex, with the usual difficulties of repeated use of a limited number of forenames through the generations, large families, and incomplete parish records for Ayton, being compounded by the movement of some Richardsons from the established church to the Society of Friends in the late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Quaker Richardsons generally prospered, with marriages into most of the well-known Quaker families, such as Backhouse, Dixon, Fry, Pease, Rowntree and, more locally, Hesleton, Loy, Martin, Proctor. The family achieved national importance in two aspects. William Richardson (c1660-1740) started tanning leather in Ayton and, several generations on, his descendants founded the business of E & J Richardson Ltd in Newcastle, one of the major British leather producers and pioneers of transforming traditional tanning into an industrial process based on science. Thomas Richardson (1771-1843) was one of the partners in the London bill-broking business that would lead directly to London becoming the international financial centre. This article concentrates on the Richardsons who lived in Ayton, where they had particular associations with Langbaurgh Hall, Cleveland Lodge, and the Friends’ School. There are references to the Richardsons associated with leather tanning outside Ayton. The various Richardsons generally appear in chronological order, with birth and death years where known. Children are listed under their parents, although families are often incomplete when based on the Parish Register. Where an individual child is given their own section later in the article, they are shown in blue thus: William Richardson. Individuals with the same forename are generally distinguished by their years of life, for example William Richardson (1700-1794), but for the earliest Richardsons, where dates may not be known, a suffix A, B, etc has been used. The name of Richardson occurs several times in seventeenth century records, but the first well-documented members of the family were William and Elizabeth, who lived at Old Langbaurgh and who started the family’s continuing interests in the tanning of leather. Their descendants took the Richardson name and interest in tanning to Newcastle and to Whitby. Richardsons remained at Langbaurgh in Ayton for several generations. Their Langbaurgh estate was the largest freehold farm in the parish, being some 157 acres at the time of the Tithe map in 1847. John Richardson built the new Langbaurgh Hall in 1833 and sold off some of his land for development, in the part of the village later known as California, in 1851. 2 Early Richardsons The earliest records of Richardsons are in wills, kept at the Borthwick Institute at the University of York. Prior to 1600 there are wills for John Richardson in 1541, William in 1588, Richard in 1576 (yeoman), Giles in 1578, John in 1588 (farmer of Little Ayton), Margaret in 1588 (widow of Little Ayton). The style of William Richardson’s will suggests that he may have been a practising Catholic. In 1601 the Parish Register shows that three of the four parish guardians were Richardsons: Christopher, Oliver and James. Clearly the Richardsons were an important family at that time. The Parish Registers are incomplete due to the

damage sustained in the flood of 1846, and later Richardsons, as Quakers, would not be recorded in them. This is why the incidence of Richardson entries reduces as time moves on. It is possible to sketch in brief periods of different Richardson family history from the data in the Parish Register, although some of this is inevitably requires some assumptions because so many entries are missing. Inevitably, it is the males who can be traced more easily. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, based on the names recorded in the Parish Register and the Borthwick wills, there were at least nine male Richardsons living in Ayton:

1) Christopher Richardson (A) and his wife both within one week in 1603, possibly from Black Death. There were 16 deaths in Ayton that year, compared with 9 in 1601 and 6 in 1605 (no data survives for 1602 or 1604). An outbreak of the plague had started in Newcastle in 1603, and spread down to York by the following year. Christopher Richardson’s will made it clear that he was a fairly well-off farmer, listing his house and contents, including pewter and two silver spoons. His agricultural equipment included a cowpe, plough, harrow, iron ox harrow, yokes and teames.

2-4) Three other Richardsons died in 1607: Christopher (B), Robert (A) and Nicholas (A). There were 12 deaths

in the village that year, and the same number the following year, compared with 6 in 1605 and 7 in 1610 (no data survives for 1606 or 1609), suggesting infectious disease, although there are no contemporary records of the plague in Northern England at that time. The will of Christopher Richardson (B) described him as a farm labourer. He left sheep, a pig and some wool. The will of Nicholas Richardson (A) showed that he owned oxgangs of land and houses. He left money to be distributed to the poor.

5-6) Two Richardsons died in 1616. Oliver Richardson, whose will showed him to be a farmer and that he

left money for distribution to the “poorest sort of this parish”. Phillip Richardson (A) died in 1616. His will described him as a yeoman, and included “loftes, balkes, balke stowers, gavelocks, yron wedges, axes and wimbles” also oxgangs of land and a house. He left money to be distributed to the poor.

7-8) Two Richardsons died in 1617: Jacob Richardson (A) and James Richardson (A). The will of James

Richardson described him as a labourer and he left a “horssmans coate”. 9) Christopher Richardson (C) died 1625. His will showed that he was a farmer, listing land, wheat, clothes,

silver spoon, and furniture. 10) John Richardson (A) died 1631. 11) Thomas Richardson (A) died 1647. His will described him as a husbandman, and he left an oxgang and

other land, with money for the poor of the parish.

There were other Christopher Richardsons living in the village at the time, probably descended from Christopher Richardson (A), who died in 1603 and Christopher Richardson (B), who died in 1607. Christopher Richardson (D) had daughters Margaret in 1632 and Anna in 1636. Christopher Richardson (E), who married Isabell Teasdale in 1662, may well have been his son, and possibly also the Christopher Richardson junior who died in 1734, although this would have meant his living into his nineties. Christopher Richardson (D) is probably the one who died in 1676, and the one who was assessed at one hearth in 1662, and then at three hearths in 1664-1673. The larger house from 1664 may have been on the site of the later Cliffe House (just north of the Roseberry housing estate). Nicholas Richardson (1730-1801) built a large house on this site in the eighteenth century. Another Christopher, Christopher Richardson (F), died in 1722.

At least four, and probably five, Robert Richardsons appear in the early pages of the Parish Register. One of them, who had a son John Richardson (A) in 1603, and could possibly be the Robert Richardson (A), who died four years later in 1607. It seems likely that he had a son Robert Richardson (B), who was the father of four children recorded in the registers: Nicholas in 1631, Robert Richardson (C) in 1636, John Richardson (B) in 1662 and Cicilie in 1673. There are deaths of four men named Robert Richardson: in 1607, 1664, 1667 and 1672. None of these is likely to be Robert Richardson (B), since the child described as his daughter Cicilie was born five months after the last death. One of the deaths is probably that of Robert Richardson (C), but the other two must be different people, say Robert Richardson (D), and Robert Richardson (E). It would seem that Nicholas Richardson (A), who died in 1607, had a son Nicholas Richardson (B), who married Beatrix Saunderson in 1610. Nicholas and Beatrix had a daughter Anna four months after the wedding, but then a Beatrix Richardson died in 1617. She would either be another daughter, or Nicholas’s wife. Since the death of younger women was generally associated with childbirth, and since there are no children buried at the time, it can perhaps be assumed that this is a daughter. This would be supported by the fact that Nicholas fathered later children, Jacob (B) in 1625 and George (A) in 1631, and there is no record of his remarriage. Nicholas Richardson (B) would probably be the Nicholas Richardson who purchased land in the open field from Thomas Stockton and James Pennyman in 1625, and the Nicholas Richardson junior who died in 1670. If so, he would have lived into his eighties, and the Richardsons had a reputation for longevity, according to Anne Boyce. Nicholas Richardson’s son George (A) later married and had children including Issobel in 1664, Elizabeth in 1667, Marie in 1672, William Richardson (A) in 1676, Ann in 1678, James in 1680, Margaret in 1686. George Richardson (A) is probably the owner of one hearth at Little Ayton in the Hearth Tax records of 1662-1673. George Richardson (A) died in 1706 at the age of 75. There is a will for a William Richardson from 1722 which describes him as a tanner. This may well be the William Richardson (A) born in 1676, the son of George Richardson (A), see above. Jacob Richardson (B), the son of Nicholas Richardson (B) above, married Elizabeth Mason in August 1617 and they had a son Thomas Richardson (C) four months after the wedding. The Jacob Richardson (A), who died one day before the wedding, may have been the father of Jacob (B). The only other entry for children of Jacob and Elizabeth was for a daughter Alice, who died in 1638, unmarried. John Richardson (B) married Isabela Levens in 1605 and their children included John Richardson (C), who was born in 1605, just one week after the marriage, assuming he is John Richardson’s son. John Richardson (B) died in 1631, probably in his forties. Thomas Richardson (A) was married and had children including William (born 1605) and Thomas B (born 1607). It was probably this son, Thomas (B), who married Jane Masterman in 1632, and this couple had children including John (C) born in 1666, and Elizabeth, born in 1676. Men with the name Thomas Richardson died in 1647 (leaving a will describing him as a husbandman), 1668 (no will) and 1673 (leaving a will). It is assumed that the first was Thomas Richardson (A), who would have been in his eighties, and the second was perhaps his son Thomas (B), although he would only have been 65 years old. This death was in March 1673, and presumably shortly after the returns for the Hearth Tax of that year, which taxed a Thomas Richardson at one hearth in Great Ayton. It is possible that John Richardson (C) was “Old Johnny of Langbaurgh”, in which case William Richardson (C), who became a Quaker after his marriage to Elizabeth Wilson, would have been his elder brother. Perhaps the inheritance did not go to him because he had become a Quaker? We know from the 1673 Hearth Tax that there were only two Richardsons in Great Ayton with substantial houses, Christopher with three hearths and Thomas with one hearth. The most likely Christopher Richardson, from the evidence of the Parish Register, is Christopher (D) who died in 1676. The other Christophers, who died in 1722 and 1734, would have been too young to have accumulated so much wealth by the time of the Hearth Tax?

All of this suggests that it was Thomas B who owned Old Langbaurgh, which was assessed at one hearth. On his death it passed to his eldest son John C, on whose death passing to William’s eldest son John D. What is left of the Parish Register has no evidence of Christopher, who was taxed on three hearths, having the necessary descendents to arrive at a point where John Richardson could inherit Old Langbaurgh from his uncle John. This leaves the question of what was Christopher Richardson’s substantial house assessed at three hearths? A man named Thomas Richardson married Anna Fox in November 1607. This could have been Thomas A; perhaps his first wife died as a result of the birth of Thomas B in September. However, bearing in mind there were later deaths of two Thomas Richardsons, in 1668 and in 1673, it is perhaps more likely that they were different people. Anna Richardson died in 1608, after just one year of married life. In 1636 Thomas Richardson senior was a churchwarden. He was unable to write his name. Phillip Richardson A was married and had children including Agnes (born 1603), Elizabeth (born 1605), Thomas and Isabela (twins born 1607). Six months later an Isabella Richardson died, one of these twins or, perhaps, John Richardson A’s wife who he married in 1605. Another Philip Richardson, possibly a son of the Phillip Richardson A above, appears in 1671, with his marriage to Margaret Taylor. They have a daughter Marie nine months after the wedding, with a son William in 1682 and John in 1685 (although he only survived three weeks). The register records the death of Philip Richardson, yeoman, in 1722. His will survives. 3 Later Richardsons Most of the Richardsons are Quakers by this time, and are thus included in Anne Boyce’s genealogies. George Richardson A appears in 1664, with the birth of a daughter Isobel. George has another daughter Elizabeth in 1667, then Marie in 1672, William in 1676, Ann in 1678, James in 1680, and Margaret in 1686. George Richardson died in 1706. James Richardson appears in the register for 1665, with the birth of his daughter Mary. His son Richard died in 1665, but more daughters followed: Elizabeth in 1667 and Jean in 1673. The father of William Richardson B is uncertain. He might have been born in 1676 as the son of George Richardson A, or born in 1682 as the son of Philip Richardson A. William A might have been his grandfather. The parish register shows that William Richardson B married Margaret Burton in 1718, and it records the baptisms of their children, including William, born in 1719 but only surviving five weeks, Hannah in 1721, and Christopher in 1722. In the entries for latter two births, William B is described as a tanner, thus some of the Richardson tanners remained members of the established church when other had turned to the Quakers. Indeed, William Richardson B was a churchwarden at All Saints Church in 1716, when he would have been forty, and again in 1737, when he would have been sixty-one. William B’s son Christopher Richardson F, born in 1722, married and had children: Mary in 1746, followed by Elizabeth in 1749, Hannah in 1751, Margaret in 1755, Christopher G (probably his first son) in 1759, and Elisabeth in 1763 (she only lived for three weeks). Christopher F is referred to as a yeoman. In 1796 his son Christopher G, described as Christopher Richardson junior and then aged 37, married Elizabeth Lamb from Ayton. She was probably the daughter of Thomas Lamb, who was a tanner. Christopher G would later be described variously as yeoman, esquire or gentleman. Christopher and Elizabeth had a daughter Mary in 1798 and another daughter Hannah in 1800. Elizabeth died in 1800

and Christopher remarried four years later, to Sarah Jackson, a widow from the village. The churchwarden at All Saints Church in 1771, described as ‘Christopher Richardson, gentleman’, would have been Christopher F, then forty-nine years old. Christopher F died in 1812, aged ninety. In 1786 the new Poor Law Guardians included Christopher Richardson junior. The later Parish Register entries include fathers’ occupations, and there are three Richardsons described as tanners: William (daughter Hannah baptised in 1721 and son Christopher baptised in 1722), John, who was buried in 1722, Joseph, who had a son James baptised in 1723. Although entries appear for Richardsons up until 1812, Joseph in 1723 is the last tanner. James Richardson, a mariner from Ayton, married Sarah Noton, also from the village, in 1806. They had a son James in 1807 who died aged nine months, a daughter Elizabeth in 1809, and a second James in 1811. 4 Labouring Richardsons The Parish Register contains entries for several Richardsons described as labourers. Richardsons mentioned so far have been yeomen farmers and tanners and, from knowledge of their properties, quite wealthy, far removed from earning their living by labouring. This suggests the labouring Richardsons were a quite separate family. Additional evidence for this is the absence of some of the common Richardson forenames seen previously, notably Christopher and Nicholas, although William is used. The first appearance of this different Richardson family is in 1746, when William Richardson, labourer, had a daughter Ann. She is followed by Hannah in 1748, Margaret in 1751, William in 1754, James in 1757, and Eleanor in 1760. The son William, born in 1754, is probably the servant who married Isabel Jackson in 1778. Two years later ‘William Richardson junior, labourer’ has a daughter Mary. Another daughter, Margaret, died in 1783, the year in which Anne was born, followed by William in 1786, twins Ralph and Nelly in 1788, Jackson in 1791, John in 1794, and Thomas in 1797. ‘William Richardson, labourer’ who died in 1800 must be William junior. There are other labourers named Richardson. Thomas Richardson has a son Thomas in 1790. Ralph and Mary Richardson have a son John in 1807, Williamson in 1808, Jane in 1811 and James in 1812. This Ralph was probably the son of William Richardson junior above, twin brother of Nelly. Prior to marrying Ralph, Mary must have been Mary Williamson, born in 1780 to John Williamson, labourer. Ralph and Mary’s son James, born in 1812, could have been named in memory of the James Richardson, labourer, who fell to his death from a cart in 1807. There are entries in the Great Ayton Surveyors’ Book referring to William Richardson. Parishes were responsible for the upkeep of roads within the parish, and appointed Surveyors to have the necessary work done. From an entry for 1793-94:

“Willm Richardson Quarry Right 6-0”

From a record of meeting on 16 January 1810 about repairs to parish roads: “2nd Lott from Stone Bridge to end of Liberty on Stokesley lane Willm Richardson 15-6”

Regarding the second entry above, Robert Kettlewell noted that “it seems that the stones for the lanes were quarried at Langbaurgh.” William Richardson was living at Old Langbaurgh at this time and may have owned the quarry, but it seems likely that the references to William Richardson concern the labouring work carried out. 5 The Richardsons and Mastermans of Little Ayton

Robert Masterman was born in 1605, the son of Thomas Masterman. The Mastermans were an important family of yeoman farmers and tanners living in Little Ayton, and there were Richardsons also living in Little Ayton. In 1631 Robert Masterman married Margery Richardson, and they had a son Matthew in 1632, daughter Frances in 1634, Robert in 1639 (he only survived for one year), a daughter Elizabeth who died in 1671. Margery died in 1691. Six months later Thomas Richardson married Jane Masterman. These two weddings would consolidate the Richardson and Masterman estates. Surprisingly, neither of these marriages is recorded in The Pedigree of the Masterman Family of Little and Great Ayton published in 1914. Members of both families would later become Quakers. 6 The Richardsons acquire their lands in Ayton Land Tax lists surviving for Ayton for the years of 1543 and 1545 show the Richardsons to have some land holdings, although not enough to be taxed at the highest rate. Richard Richardson, William Richardson were taxed in the middle band, and Oliver Richardson in the lowest band. It was during the seventeenth century the Richardsons acquired most of their land holdings in Ayton, principally through the Enclosure Agreement of 1658. Before this, a document from 1625 records Nicholas Richardson buying land in the open fields from Thomas Stockton and James Pennyman; the extent of the land was defined by the adjacent owners, who included Charles Richardson junior. The Nicholas here is probably Nicholas B and he would be in his forties. Nicholas Richardson B and Christopher Richardson D were jurymen at the Manor Court in 1647. At this court Margery Balmer complained that John Richardson had let his horses trespass on her enclosure called Damland at Little Ayton, and damaged her corn. John Richardson was found not guilty. The following year John Richardson was again before the Court because he had not left the required unploughed strip between his land and that of his neighbour, John Ketlewell, on Cray Hill. In 1653 Christopher Richardson D, and Robert Richardson B, D, or E, were jurors on the Manorial Court, when a John Richardson was fined ten shillings for “putting overstint in the aceraige”. Thomas Richardson B was one of the four constables. In 1658 the foremost landowners in the village enclosed the three old open fields through a private legal agreement. John Coulson was by far the largest beneficiary, with the entire 544 acres of Applebridge Field, all of Aireyholme and Dikes Banks, and substantial areas in the other fields. It is perhaps strange that the name of Nicholas Richardson B does not appear in the enclosure agreement, since he did not die until 1670, but by this time he would be an old man in his seventies, and have retired from work and business. However there are four Richardsons who gained land: Christopher Richardson: 64 acres in Wood Field, 42 acres in Crabtree Field, 31 acres in West Moor Robert Richardson: 24 acres in Wood Field John Richardson: 31 acres in Wood Field, 8 acres in West Moor Thomas Richardson: 20 acres in Crabtree Field The Christopher here is likely to be Christopher D, who had married Isabell Teasdale and who would be assessed for three hearths in 1673 and who died in 1676. He would be in his fifties or sixties. The Robert is probably Robert B, in his forties or fifties, the John is probably John B, who would have been fifty-three, and the Thomas would have been Thomas B, who would have been fifty-one. Christopher D’s land included 64 acres from Wood Field, reckoned by Dan O’Sullivan to be where he built a large house, assessed for three hearths in 1673, on the site of the present-day Cliff House, at the top end of the Roseberry housing estate.

Dan also thinks that John B built Old Langbaurgh on his land from Wood Field, although by 1673 it is Thomas B who is assessed for one hearth in Great Ayton, surely Old Langbaurgh? John B, born in 1605, could have died by 1673 and passed Old Langbaurgh to Thomas B in his will. In the 1673 Hearth Tax records Christopher Richardson had three hearths and Thomas Richardson had one hearth at Great Ayton, while Robert Richardson, Thomas Richardson, Nicholas Richardson and Richard Richardson, all at Little Ayton, had one hearth each. 7 William Richardson (c1660-1740) of Old Langbaurgh, the first Quaker Richardson William Richardson (c1660-1740) lived at Great Ayton, at Old Langbaurgh, all his life. The spelling and pronunciation of Langbaurgh causes confusion. The name derives from the Old English “Lang Beorg” meaning long hill - the Cleveland Dyke. It’s correct local pronunciation is “Langbarf” and it was so spelt by George Richardson in his 1850 book. However Anne Boyce (1889) used “Langbarugh” and Milligan (2007) used “Langbaugh”. Canon Atkinson included “Langbarugh” in his glossary of the Cleveland dialect, but gave alternative spellings of bargh, barugh and baurgh (a hill) and pronounced “barf”. The most usual spelling, from the Domesday Book, the old wapentakes of East and West Langbaurgh, and the current Ordnance Survey map, is Langbaurgh. William was presumably the son of Christopher Richardson, who had paid tax on three hearths. In her book on the Richardsons, Anne Boyce sets the family home below the Cleveland hills ‘Roseberry Topping high and bare, Cliffridge, with its softly-rounded, wooded outline, and Easby with its long straight line only broken by the monument of Captain Cook’. A footnote comments that she has been told, since writing this description (around 1870), that Cliffridge is no longer “softly-rounded” and that the streets of Leeds are paved with stones quarried from the sides of that once beautiful hill. William Richardson married Elizabeth Wilson at Lythe Church, Whitby, on 31 July 1684. William had been brought up in the Church of England, but soon after the marriage he and Elizabeth joined the Society of Friends “so despised and persecuted a sect”. George Fox had been to Cleveland in 1651, and a Quaker meeting had been established in Ayton by 1665. The Toleration Act 1689 gave legal recognition to Friends’ Meeting Houses, and William Richardson was one of the three men who, in 1700, bought land by High Green on which to build a Meeting House. In her history of the Richardson family, Anne Boyce speculated that William’s brother John Richardson, known as “Old Johnny of Langbarf”, probably became a Quaker, but not so the other family members in Ayton, Christopher Richardson and Nicholas Richardson (possibly a son of the Nicholas Richardson who purchased land in the open field from Thomas Stockton and James Pennyman in 1625, the Nicholas Richardson junior who died in 1670, before the time of William’s conversion), who would disapprove of William’s change of faith. Old Johnny’s conversion, if it came after he had inherited Old Langbaurgh, would explain how the property could later pass to his older brother’s son John, see below. Elizabeth Richardson was clearly the stronger partner in the marriage. Her husband would say that if ever he did something she advised him against, it proved not well. There was an incident where Elizabeth dissuaded her husband from increasing the family’s income by malting barley. William had “built a malt-kiln near his little tan-house” and his neighbours had thought this a wise and prudent move. But Elizabeth foresaw her children delivering malt to ale-houses, and getting into the habit of drinking, and so malting ceased and William concentrated on his farming and tanning. The Quakers, with unwavering adherence to their principles, repeatedly incurred the wrath of the public and the state. One such instance was over a government imposed duty on leather, with tanners having to swear to God that they would pay this every time they took leather out their tanning pits. William and Elizabeth refused to take the oath, believing it wrong to bring the Almighty into their business transactions. Fines were imposed, and they were forced to borrow money at 6% interest. By 1702 the government relented, and Quaker tanners could use a simple from of words without reference to God.

After this episode, the tanning business prospered. In the 1700 conveyance for the Friends’ Meeting House, William was described as a yeoman, but in a later conveyance in 1722 he was described as a tanner. In this conveyance his two oldest sons, John and William, are involved and are described as yeomen. It would seem that their father was occupied with the tanning while his sons carried on the farming activities, although later John seems to have been the farmer at Langbaurgh and William the tanner on High Green. Family life was harder. Of their twelve children, three daughters died in their early years, one from small pox. Their mother Elizabeth was buried at Ayton on 16 May 1719, when her youngest daughter was under ten years old. William survived another twenty-two years, until his death at the age of about eighty. He was buried at Ayton on 29 June 1740. Through their three sons, John, William and Isaac, and two of their daughters, Hannah and Lydia, a hundred tears later there were more than 300 descendants. William and Elizabeth Richardson had nine daughters and three sons:

1) Mary Richardson (1684-1718) married John Ward of Whitby in 1707. 2) Elizabeth Richardson who died in 1715 aged only one month, at Ayton. 3) Rachel Richardson, born in 1690, and married to Francis Husband of Guisborough in 1713. 4) Ann Richardson, who died in infancy in 1697. 5) Rebecca Richardson, who married Timothy Chadwick in 1719, then remarried Joseph Gaskin. 6) Sarah Richardson, who married Isaac Brown of the Isle of Ely. 7) John Richardson (1698-1786), married Lydia Vasie of Whitby in 1727 and inherited old Langbaurgh from his

uncle “Old Johnny of Langbarf” (more information below). 8) William Richardson (1700-1794) who married Mary Robinson in 1722, then remarried Mary Thornhill in

1772 (more information below). 9) Martha Richardson (1703-1712) who died from small pox at the age of nine. 10) Hannah Richardson, born in 1705 and married to Daniel Fossick of Welbury in 1725. 11) Isaac Richardson (1707-1780), born at Ayton on 18 October 1707, and married Lydia Vasie’s sister Isabel in

1732 (more information below). 12) Lydia Richardson (1710-1802) married Richard Richardson, from the Holderness, in 1735. They had seven

children; their eldest son Robert Richardson (1741-1825), a poor brush-maker in Darlington, married Caroline Garth and had a son, Thomas Richardson (1771-1843), who became the successful London financier, founder the Friends’ School and builder of Cleveland Lodge (see later).

8 John Richardson (1698-1786) of Old Langbaurgh John Richardson (1698-1786) was William and Elizabeth’s eldest son. According to George Richardson’s book, John inherited the Langbaurgh Estate, not from his father but from his uncle “Old Johnny Richardson of Langbarf” who died in 1735. “Old Johnny” had only one daughter, she married Robert Shields in 1687 and died early, leaving no children. In 1727 John married Lydia Vasie, from the Quaker family of ship builders and owners at Whitby. He and Lydia moved into Old Langbaurgh, remembered by his as “a long, low house, almost hidden to its red roof by climbing roses” with “a large garden, bounded on two sides by low walls, overgrown by flowers and fruit trees, and on a third side stretching away into an orchard carpeted in spring with snowdrops and daffodils.” The old house still stands, although it was considerably altered at the end of the twentieth century. Lydia Vasie’s three sisters accepted their brother-in-law’s invitation to go and live at Old Langbaurgh, after one of them dreamt that her father prophesied, correctly as it turned out, that they would meet their future husbands there. John and Lydia Richardson lived at Old Langbaurgh for the rest of their lives. They had three daughters and two sons:

1) Lydia Richardson (1728-1810), remained unmarried. It is either her, or her mother, who is shown in the 1799 Land Tax as owning ‘a messuage and 13 acres of pasture’.

2) Mary Richardson (1730-1787), remained unmarried. 3) John Richardson (1734-1778), remained unmarried. 4) William Richardson (1736-1826), who married Mary Muskett in 1774 and lived at Langbaurgh (more

information below). 5) Henry Richardson (1741-1818) married Elizabeth Thornhill in 1772. They had no children. He purchased

Manor House in Great Ayton from the Skottowe family (more information below). In 1774 there was a press notice of the bankruptcy of John Richardson, tanner, of Great Ayton. It is possible that this referred to John senior, who would have been 76, or more likely to his eldest son, who would have been 40, and that the tannery concerned was William’s original tan-yard at Langbaurgh. 9 William Richardson (1700-1794) of High Green, Great Ayton William Richardson (1700-1794) was William and Elizabeth’s second son. He lived in Ayton all his life. When he died, his house on High Green passed to his grand-daughter Rachel, who had married Philip Hesleton. Philip Hesleton subsequently sold it to the Quakers for the North of England Agricultural School, a deal financed by Thomas Richardson (1771-1843). From the evidence of his will, William was a wealthy farmer and leather tanner, owning a good deal of property in the village. He married Mary Robinson from Rounton, at Yarm on 13 September 1722. They had one daughter and four sons, who in turn had many descendants, some of whom Anne Boyce noted were “conspicuous figures in Ayton” at the beginning of the nineteenth century:

1) John Richardson, born in 1723. He probably lived at Grange Mill (more information below). 2) William Richardson, born in 1724. He married Martha Hill of Whitby in 1764 and later remarried to Ann

Bellamy or Bellerby of Ayton in 1777. 3) Nicholas Richardson (1730-1801). Wealthy brewer and corn merchant in Great Ayton (more information

below. 4) Benjamin Richardson (1733-1765), unmarried. 5) Mary Richardson, born in 1736, married Caleb Webster of Whitby.

In 1772, after the death of his first wife, Mary Robinson, and at the age of 72, William married Mary Thornhill, a widow, on 7 April 1772. Since she is not mentioned in his will, she must have died before him. 10 Isaac Richardson (1707-1780) tanner of Whitby Isaac Richardson (1707-1780) was the third and youngest son of William and Elizabeth Richardson, being born at Ayton on 18 October 1707. His mother died when he was about eleven years old, in George Richardson’s words, denying him the “vigilant oversight and instructive conversation of his valuable mother”. He was apprenticed at Stockton-on-Tees where, again according to his grandson George, he fell in with friends who began to frequent public houses. He admonished them for this, saying that if they continued in this course their lives would be ruined. They did not heed his words and he felt he must refrain from their company. George Richardson said that “most of them turned out disreputable characters”. Isaac married Isabel Vasie (the sister of Lydia, who had earlier married one of Isaac’s brothers) in 1732 at the Meeting House in Ayton. Isabel’s parents were Henry and Mary Vasie (the name is sometimes spelt Vazie). Henry had a ship-building business in Whitby. There is a sampler by the ten-year old Isabel Vasie in the Whitby Museum. Isaac and Isabel settled at Bog Hall, on the outskirts of Whitby, as a tanner. Around 1735 Isaac became a Quaker minister and later made religious visits to Friends in London and throughout the north of England. Four years later Isabel became a minister, and

travelled to other Friends’ Meetings in her own right. Some visits were made with Isaac, when they rode together on the same horse. About 1742 the family moved to the New Tan House. He tanned hides, calf skins and seal skins from local whalers. Isabel was, by all accounts, very industrious and wove all the cloth required for the family’s clothes. Isaac and Isabel had three daughters and five sons:

1) John Richardson (1733-1781). He married Margaret Stead of Gateshead and started the tanyard at Low Lights, North Shields (more information below).

2) Elizabeth Richardson (1735-1773) married Ingram Chapman, a Whitby ship owner. They had two daughters, Isabel and Elizabeth, both of whom died unmarried, and a son Ingram. He became a seaman and ship owner and, on his marriage to a near relative, left the Society of Friends.

3) Mary Richardson (1737-1823) married George Gallilee, another Whitby ship owner. Of their four children, Isaac became a tanner and Thomas, for some time a mariner, later joined his brother at the tan yard.

4) Isaac Richardson (1738-1791) set up a tannery at Cherry Hill, York (more information below). 5) Henry Richardson (1740-1808) was a flax-dresser at Whitby and later an ironmonger in Stockton-on-Tees

(more information below). 6) William Richardson (1742-1809) was born on 7 March 1742 at Bog Hall, and married Mary Dale of

Scarborough in 1771. William succeeded to his father’s tanyard in Whitby but, after his first wife’s death, moved to the Cherry Hill tanyard in York, which had been set up by his elder brother Isaac, see above. He remarried, to Elizabeth Reay of Alston, and they lived in Sheffield, where he worked as a leather-cutter. He died on 28 August 1809.

7) Isabel Richardson (1744-1823) was born at New Tan House on 24 June 1744. She became a successful linen draper in Whitby. She married William Hudson, who was not a Quaker, in 1792 and became involved in his insolvency. He died in 1798 and she moved to Newcastle, where she died on 11 August 1823.

8) Aaron Richardson (1747-1780) was born on 22 November 1747 and married Mary Postglove of Lynn, who was then living in Whitby. They moved to Lynn in 1773, where he started a tannery business. He died on 14 September 1790.

In 1761, on the day King George III was crowned, Isaac Richardson refused to light candles in his windows, and had them broken on three occasions by the rejoicing crowd outside. According to Isabel, her husband had been of a weakly constitution since their marriage and he died, after a short illness, on 10 September 1780. Isaac Richardson was buried in the Friends’ burial ground at Whitby three days later. Isabel herself died on 9 May 1789, aged 84, and is also buried at Whitby. 11 John Richardson (born 1723) of West Mill, Great Ayton John Richardson was born in 1723, the eldest son of William and Mary Richardson. John married Rachel Snowden of Welbourne in 1752. John and Rachel had four daughters: Elizabeth, Hannah, Rachel and Mary. Two of their daughters married men from prominent Ayton Quaker families; Mary Richardson married Philip Hesleton, who had an extensive linen business, and Rachel Richardson married Isaac Martyn, who owned a tannery. This John Richardson is probably the person referred to in Ralph Jackson’s diary entry for July 1765 when “Brother Wilson, Mr James and self saw John Richardson’s Oyl Mill near Ayton.” This mill was the West or Grange Mill, powered from the tail race downstream of the village’s main corn mill. John would have been age forty-two at the time. It is unlikely that Ralph Jackson was referring to John’s cousin, John Richardson (1734-1788), who would have been thirty-one, but he was probably occupied full-time with his father on the Langbaurgh estate.

12 Nicholas Richardson (1730-1801) brewer and corn merchant in Great Ayton Nicholas Richardson (1730-1801) was the third son of William (1736-1826) and Mary Richardson. Nicholas Richardson married Dorothy Kilden of Masham in 1760. As the third son he did not inherit his father’s property, but nevertheless became a wealthy brewer and corn merchant. He built Cliff House at the foot of Cliff Rigg on the northern edge of the village. In the wall of the extension to the Friends’ School, built in 1916, there is a large stone block bearing the initials N R and the date of 1798. This probably refers to Nicholas Richardson, who would have been sixty-eight when the stone was inscribed. It is not known which building it was originally a part but, from its considerable size, it probably wasn’t moved very far, suggesting a property on High Green. Nicholas and Dorothy had seven children. Nicholas was active within the village, and was an Overseer of the Poor and later, in 1786, a New Poor Law Guardian. In 1777 three men were nominated to supervise the building of the first stone bridge across the River Leven: Parson Hastwell, Nicholas Richardson (who would have then been aged forty-seven) and Thomas Weatheril. 13 John Richardson (1733-1781) tanner of Low Lights, North Shields John Richardson (1733-1781) was the eldest son of Isaac and Isabel Richardson, and was born at Bog Hall, Whitby, on 1 April 1733. He worked in his father’s tanyard, with his brothers Isaac and William, until he was about 25, when he briefly ran a shop in Whitby. Then he went north, and called at the house of John Stead, a civil engineer in Gateshead, who he probably knew. There he met John Stead’s daughter Margaret, who had dreamt a few nights before of the man she would marry. She recognised John Richardson from her dream, and they were married on 24 January 1760. For six years John Richardson farmed at Seghill East New Houses, near Cramlington, but the price of corn was so low that he could not support his family. His father came to the rescue: one of his friends was John Walker of Whitby (who had taken James Cook on as an apprentice), and his son John owned property near North Shields. John Walker senior loaned the purchase money to John Richardson, and thus John and Margaret were able to move to Pew Dean, where they established a tannery known as Low Lights. Here they tanned hides and calf skins, also seal skins brought in by whalers. John and Margaret had three daughters and five sons:

1) Isaac Richardson (1761-1810) He learned the tanning business from his father at Low Lights, then at the age of 25 moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, where he joined the business of John Storey, tanner, at White Cross, Newgate Street. Isaac married Deborah Sutton in 1795 and they had eight children, four dying while still young. He lost money through a fire at his tanyard, and suffered ill-health, dying in 1810 at the age of 49. His brother George, see below, looked after the tanyard until Isaac’s sons were able to take it over.

2) Margaret Richardson (1763-1829) she married Joseph Unthank of Whitby in 1791, but pined for her home on the Tyne. In consequence she and Joseph moved to North Shields around 1805, where Joseph went into partnership at Willington Mill with William Brown and Joseph Proctor, both of whom had married Richardsons. In 1807 William Brown married Mary Wilson, the daughter of William Richardson (1736-1826) of Langbaurgh and widow of Joshua Wilson. In 1799 Joseph Proctor had married Margaret’s sister, Elizabeth Richardson, in 1799. In 1837, Mary Unthank, one of Margaret Richardson’s daughters, married Isaac Richardson (1784-1841), who was one of the sons of Henry (1740-1808) and Hannah Richardson.

3) John Richardson (1765-1842) He married three times, to Hannah Wilson of Sunderland, to Mary King of Darlington and finally to Sarah Blaxland of Hitchin. One of his sons, Caleb Richardson, was a miller in Sunderland - he married Mary Driver and one of his sons, Joseph Richardson (1830-1902), became the head of the Sunderland shipbuilders Richardson, Duck & Co. Another son, William Richardson (1801-1879), continued his father’s tannery business. One of John’s daughters married Sarah Dixon, of the Cockfield Dixon family

4) Isabel Richardson (1768-1774) died at the age of 6.

5) William Richardson (1771-1842). He entered the family tanning business and married twice: in 1804 to Sarah, daughter of Thomas Priestman, a tanner of York, and after her death in 1809 to Margaret Robson of Darlington, whose mother was a Pease.

6) George Richardson (1773-1862) was apprenticed to a cheesemonger and then set up his own grocery business in Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1800 he married Eleanor Watson, and in 1849 compiled The Annals of the Cleveland Richardsons, which he had printed privately the following year.

7) Elizabeth Richardson (1777-1820) married Joseph Proctor (1772-1813) in 1799. He was a draper and corn miller born in Yarm but later moved to North Shields. In 1805 Joseph went into partnership with William Brown and Joseph Unthank (see details for Elizabeth’s older sister Margaret, above).

Joseph and Elizabeth Proctor had six children, two of their daughters married in 1833. Jane Proctor, born in 1805, married John Richardson (1795-1881) of Langbaurgh, see below, both being great-grandchildren of William and Elizabeth Richardson Langbaurgh. Hannah Proctor, born in 1808, married Isaac Sharpe, private secretary to Joseph Pease of Darlington.

One of John and Jane Richardson’s sons was John Richardson Proctor, who went into the Low Lights tannery business and married Lydia Richardson of York. John Richardson Proctor was the father of Henry Richardson Proctor, (1848-1927), the eminent industrial chemist.

8) Henry Richardson (1778-1834). He inherited his father’s tannery and did not marry. He looked after three of the orphan children of his sister Elizabeth Proctor, see above, after her death in 1820. His housekeeper was his cousin, Mary Richardson.

John Richardson’s wife Margaret died in 1781 and four years later John remarried. His second wife was Jane Nickle or Nichol, a Quaker from Longtown, who was the housekeeper for David Sutton of Newcastle. The children by the first marriage seem to have been somewhat upset by the arrival of their step mother, but in any case were growing up and leaving the parental home. There were two children by the second marriage, neither married:

9) Aaron Richardson (1788-1811) a mariner who died of consumption. 10) Joseph Richardson (1791-1848) started a grocery business, but lost money through a shipwreck. He also

became a mariner, and was twice ship wrecked. John Richardson died on 29 March 1800. An obituary in The Newcastle Advertiser of 5 April 1800 said that “He was one of the people called Quakers, and maintained through his life the strictest integrity, which, combined with true meekness and industry, gained him the esteem of all who knew him.” His second wife, Jane, died of erysipelas fever on 16 November 1801. The Low Lights tan-yard was taken over by John Richardson’s eldest son Isaac Richardson (1761-1810), who later went into partnership with John Richardson’s third son, Isaac’s younger brother William (1771-1842). His second son John (1765-1842) was also a tanner in Newcastle. Three of his grandsons all became tanners: John Richardson born at Newcastle in 1799, William Richardson born at Sunderland in 1801, and Edward Richardson born at Newcastle in 1806. Great grandson James Richardson, born at Newcastle in 1831, became a tanner and married a daughter of Jeremiah Dixon, a descendant of the Dixons of Cockfield 14 William Richardson (1736-1826) of Langbaurgh William Richardson (1736-1826) was one of the three sons of John and Lydia Richardson, who lived at Old Langbaurgh. William lived at Langbaurgh for ninety years until his death on 13 November 1826. He married Mary Muskett, the daughter of Mary Hart and her former husband, John Muskett of Newton, Norfolk, at Ayton in 1774. They had eight children. In contrast to the good ages achieved by many Richardsons, five of the eight children died before they reached their thirtieth birthday.

1) John Richardson (1775-1790) died when he was 15 years old.

2) Mary Richardson (1777-1818) married Joshua Wilson of Sunderland in 1802 and after his death remarried William Brown of North Shields. Mary then died at the age of 41, leaving William Brown a widower, but he remarried Sarah Richardson, a daughter of Henry Richardson (1740-1808) and his wife Hannah, who lived in Whitby. Both Mary and Sarah were great grand-daughters of William and Elizabeth Richardson of Langbaurgh.

3) William Richardson (1779-1781) died when he was only 2 years old. 4) Lydia Richardson (1781-1810) unmarried and died aged 29. 5) Elizabeth Richardson (1784-1869) married Dr Thomas Loy, the Ayton doctor. Two of their sons, Thomas and

William Augustus, married the sisters Elizabeth and Hannah Jackson, daughters of George Jackson of Tanton Hall. William eloped with Hannah, who was only 16 at the time, only a few days after her sister’s wedding. They married in Edinburgh, but returned to Ayton and had a marriage ceremony in the parish church. Both brothers were doctors, Thomas at Stokesley and William Augustus at Ayton, where he took over from his father.

6) Ann Richardson (1789-1809) unmarried and died at the age of 20. 7) Henrietta Richardson (1791-1806) unmarried and died at the age of 15. 8) John Richardson (1795-1881) married Jane Proctor in 1838 and, after her death, married her sister Hannah

Proctor in 1845 (more information below). 15 Isaac Richardson (1738-1791) tanner of Cherry Hill, York Isaac Richardson (1738-1791) was the second son of Isaac Richardson and Elizabeth Vasie, and was born on 4 December 1738. He learned the tanning business from his father, moved to London for a few years, where he married Sarah Barnes in 1779, and then moved to York in 1780. He purchased a cherry orchard and established a tannery at Cherry Hill House. He died on 12 February 1791, in York. Two of his sons, Samuel and William, succeeded to the tannery, later developed into Richardson Agricultural Merchants, which continued until 1973. William had married Martha Mildred, and they lived at Cherry Hill House and one of their children, Lydia, married John Richardson Proctor (1812-1888) in 1847 who became the parents of the eminent industrial chemist Henry Richardson Proctor (see under leather tanning). Another of William and Martha’s children, Henry Richardson (1814-1893), inherited the agricultural merchant’s business and began manufacturing chemical fertilisers. He founded the York branch of the RSPCA and there is a horse trough inscribed with his name in Bishopgate Street; apparently incorrectly it gives his life as 1813-1895. 16 Henry Richardson (1740-1808) Whitby flax-dresser and Stockton ironmonger Henry Richardson (1740-1808) was born at Whitby on 10 September 1740, his parents were Isaac and Isabel Richardson. He started in business as a flax dresser in Whitby, where he had flax shops and a heckling chamber. He married Hannah Priestman (1741-1791) of Thornton Dale in 1768 - her father John Priestman was a tanner. Henry and Hannah had fourteen children, of whom the first five died in early life. Among the surviving children were Elizabeth, Mary and Hannah, the three unmarried sisters who were Anne Boyce’s three unmarried aunts, and the original subjects of her book. Elizabeth and Hannah reacted against Quaker restrictions, and left the Society of Friends. Hannah became a dancer, but returned to the Friends in 1814. Another daughter, Sarah, married a corn miller from North Shields, William Brown, who had previously been married to Mary Richardson. Yet another daughter, Isabel, married a tanner from Hull, Henry Casson. Around 1779 the family moved to Stockton-on-Tees where besides continuing to dress flax, he became an ironmonger, a business which gradually became predominant.

Henry and Hannah Richardson employed a Quaker from Ayton, Rachel White, as a family nurse for the children. Rachel later passed into the service of Henry’s cousin Henry (1741-1818), who had a house in Stockton but usually lived in his other house adjacent to the West (Grange) Mill in Ayton. Rachel lived with her sisters, first on a farm in Little Ayton and later in a cottage upon Ayton Green. For many years she looked after the Stockton house of her second employer, Henry Richardson (1741-1818), but returned to Ayton in later life. She was renowned for her curd-cheese cakes. Henry Richardson died on 22 July 1808. 17 Henry Richardson (1741-1818) of Ayton Manor House, owned Grange Mill Henry Richardson (1741-1818), was the youngest son of John and Lydia Richardson. He married Elizabeth Thornhill in 1772 and, according to Anne Boyce, did not have any children. Henry bought the Manor House from the Skottowes in 1801, and they employed Rachel White (see above). He owned the Grange Mill, previously in the hands of the John Richardson who had been born in 1723, and later operated by John Dixon, eldest son of the first superintendent of the Friends’ School. Joshua Bowron was crushing linseed at the West (Grange) Mill in Ayton from 1779 to his death in 1837. From 1794 there is an insurance document for the water-powered oil mill, storehouse, granaries and dwelling house taken out by Henry Richardson, Stockton. In 1817 George Young mentioned the “oil mill of Mr H Richardson at Ayton.” In 1823 the business was known as Richardson & Bowron. West Mill was owned by the Richardson family before this, as can be seen in the Ralph Jackson Diary entry of 1765 referring to John Richardson. Henry and Elizabeth did not have any children. When Henry died in 1818 his estate passed to Elizabeth Slinger, daughter of Tempest and Johannah Slinger. James Bowron continued to operate the mill until 1837, after this it was rented by Weatherill, Sanderson & Co of Stockton. It is not clear how Elizabeth Slinger was related to Henry Richardson, since her father came from Dagenham. After she had inherited, Elizabeth Slinger married William Proctor (1764-1855) in 1825, but there were no children from the marriage and the estate was administered by the Proctor Trust. 18 Philip Hesleton (1764-1826) linen manufacturer of Ayton Philip Hesleton and Mary Richardson were married on 30 November 1786 in Ayton. Philip was a Quaker and a linen manufacturer. He owned the flax mill alongside the River Leven at the lower end of what is now Station Road, a building later used by the Friends’ School as a craft workshop and subsequently rebuilt and converted into apartments by George Wimpey in the 1990s. George Dixon, in the first history of the Friends’ School, wrote that “the Heseltons, the late owners of the estate, employed many weavers of linen, huckaback, and sailcloth”. Philip and Mary lived in a splendid Georgian house on High Green, built in 1760 and inherited from Mary’s grandfather, William Richardson (1700-1794). Their life style can be imagined from features of the house: two wine cellars, an archway for carriages to pass to the back of the house, two servants’ lodging rooms and a grain store in the roof space. The building is the only Ayton dwelling to have merited a mention by Nikolaus Pevsner, “a stately five-bay house of two and a half storeys with a porch of two Doric angle pillars with two unfluted Doric columns”. It is now 5 Richardson Hall, and is easily recognised by the Doric columned portico (which was added after Philip Hesleton’s time). Philip Hesleton was one of Anne Boyce’s “conspicuous figures in Ayton” and served on the Select Vestry. He died on 10 August 1826, his wife Mary had died on 8 May in the same year.

Philip and Mary had three sons, Philip, Joseph and William (who died on 9 November 1813) and a daughter Mary. Philip Hesleton junior inherited the estate on his father’s death, but took little interest in it. He kept greyhounds and hunted hares, sometimes with Thomas Richardson, who had made a fortune from the bill-broking business of Richardson, Overend & Gurney, and who was now renting Ayton House. For a while, Mary, sister to Philip and Joseph, acted as the brothers’ housekeeper, but in 1836 she was disowned by the Ayton Meeting. In 1841 Philip sold the house, the mill and 74 acres of land for the Quaker North of England Agricultural School, which was funded by Thomas Richardson. This scheme was no doubt put together by the two friends, one with property he wanted to sell, the other with a need to get involved in something worthwhile. His wife Martha was ill, and would die before the end of the year, and money wasn’t a problem. The oil mill, now owned by Philip junior and Joseph Hesleton, was rented out to Weatherill, Sanderson & Co of Stockton company. At this time large mechanised oil mills were rendering the old water-driven mills obsolete. Philip and Joseph tried in vain to find a buyer for the mill. A newspaper advertisement in August 1845 offered for lease or sale “that old-established oil mill … used for the last 40 years for seed crushing and refining of oils”. Not surprisingly, there were no takers. Shortly afterwards the brothers offered the school the property on the condition they also paid for the oil processing equipment. The school had no use for this equipment, and little cash available. But it did agree to the sale, although they subsequently sold the milling equipment, and made an agreement whereby they bought mill and fittings, paying interest to the Hesletons until the purchase price could be raised some years later. This is another example of Quaker business considerations being given the highest priority; it might have been thought that Philip and Joseph would have sold the mill fittings themselves, or even accepted a nominal sum for them. Philip junior died in 1851. 19 Thomas Richardson (1771-1843) Great Ayton benefactor Thomas Richardson (1771-1843) was born in Darlington on 15 September 1771, son of Robert Richardson (1741-1825), a brush maker, and his wife Caroline Garth. He and his eight siblings, including his sister Martha who would later marry his business partner John Overend, were brought up in Darlington under humble circumstances. Thomas was completed an apprenticeship with a grocer in Sunderland and returned to Darlington. Edward Pease, his cousin, arranged for him to start working for the Quaker bank of Smith, Wright & Gray in Lombard Street, paid his fare to London and gave him a guinea. He rose from an errand boy to a clerk, and in 1799 he married Martha Beeby, from Allonby in Cumberland, who was a servant in the house of one of the bankers. They had no children. Shortly after his marriage he was to become involved in a business venture that would make him a very wealthy man and make London to financial centre of the world, according to the banking historian W C E Hartley. John Overend, a Quaker from Settle, had made his way to London to seek his fortune, where he found a job with Smith & Holt, woollen factors and bankers. His travels for his employers brought him into contact with John Gurney of the Norwich Bank founded by the Quaker Henry Gurney. Overend asked Gurney’s opinion on an idea he had for a bill-broking business which only charged commission on the borrower. John Gurney encouraged the venture, and Overend set up the office of Richardson & Overend in Finch Lane. John Overend married one of Thomas Richardson’s sisters, Martha Richardson (1780-1810), at Ayton in 1809, but she died a year later. The bill-broking enterprise was a great success, and soon they were joined by John Gurney’s son Samuel, the business becoming Richardson, Overend & Gurney. The three partners became very wealthy men. Thomas and Martha moved to a large house in Stamford Hill. He also had a house at Allonby. Thomas retired from the business in 1830, when he was 59 years old. Thomas was a founder director of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, and had taken up £5,500 of stock, the largest single holding. He was also one of the six original Middlesbrough Owners. Edward Pease and Thomas Richardson, cousins, were partners in the locomotive works of Robert Stephenson & Company in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The shabby treatment of the Stephensons by Thomas Richardson and his colleagues is one of several examples of Quaker ruthlessness in their business dealings.

Some time before his own move to Great Ayton, Thomas had arranged for his elderly parents, Robert and Caroline Richardson, to move to the village. Ayton had been the home of his father’s mother, Lydia Richardson, who had been born at Old Langbaurgh, one of the ancestral homes of the Richardsons. So that he might be able to spend some time with hem, he leased Ayton House, at the bottom of Easby Lane, from Thomas Graham, who also owned Ayton Hall. Both his parents died in 1825. Living at Ayton suited both his business and social life. He was one of the Middlesbrough Owners and was involved with the Stockton & Darlington railway. Socially, he enjoyed the company of Philip Hesleton junior, and Edward Pease and his three sons. Living at Ayton also suited his wife Martha, who was an invalid. She died at the end of October, 1841, and is buried at Ayton. About this time Thomas Richardson fell out with Thomas Graham, his landlord. Graham accused Richardson of cutting down a tree, contrary to the terms of the lease. Joseph Pease smoothed matter over by paying Graham some damages, but Thomas had to move out before the lease was due to expire in 1842. His belongings were stored in the Friends’ School, and he looked around for land on which to build a house. Elizabeth Martin, who had inherited the Richardson tanyard by High Green, offered him Buckbank (the rising ground behind the Village Hall) and some land. He turned this down and acquired some of the Ayton School land where he would build Cleveland Lodge. Whilst the building work proceeded, he rented Beech Grove from Dr Thomas Loy’s widow, following the doctor’s death in December 1842. The work progressed well, and Thomas moved into some of the rooms before the whole building was completed. A dwelling stood in the way of the proposed entrance and gatehouse, but Thomas Richardson had this knocked down in return for promising an annuity to the owner and his wife during their lifetimes. Thomas died in on 25 April 1853 at Redcar, and is buried at Ayton. Thomas had donated money to a great many causes during his time at Ayton. He was a very wealthy man with no immediate heirs. He is particularly associated with the Ayton School. The majority of money, £5000 of the initial £6500 needed to purchase the Hesleton estate, had been given by him, with later contributions to the running costs, in total some £11,663. He donated the row of sandstone cottages on Station Road (now numbered 21 to 31) to the school; the cottage gardens were assimilated into the school garden. Thomas gave to other Quaker schools, and endowed the British School on the High Street in 1842. Two years earlier, he had paid for the rebuilding of the waterfall dam which had been swept away in the great flood caused by the collapse of the Kildale fish-pond retaining wall. Another example of the Quaker practice of combining business and personal interests with charitable works, was the construction of the first gas-producing plant at Ayton in 1850. This was paid for by Thomas Richardson, designed and built by John Dunning, agent for the Middlesbrough Owners, and supplied gas for lighting to Cleveland Lodge and parts of the Ayton School. 20 John Richardson (1795-1881) of Langbaurgh, who married two Proctor sisters John Richardson H was the son of William Richardson (1736-1826) was born at Langbaurgh and lived there for all of his life. He married Jane Proctor from North Shields, at North Shields on 13 February 1833, and they had the new Langbaurgh Hall built as a family home. Anne Boyce describes New Langbaurgh as a handsome, well-planned house, built in 1833, and standing above the old house. Jane died in 1843, aged 36, and John then married her sister, Hannah, in 1845. All John Richardson’s eight children were by his first wife, Jane:

1) Elizabeth Richardson, born in 1883, who married Henry Hutchinson of Selby in 1859. 2) Mary Richardson, born in 1835 and who did not marry.

3) William Richardson (1836-1921) married Mary Ann Ashby of Staines in 1859. William Richardson was born at Langbaurgh Hall in Ayton on 6 June 1836. He started a career as an architect in Darlington, changed to construction work, and about 1860 he founded the company of W Richardson & Co, horticultural and heating engineers, who became the leading firm of its kind in Britain.

4) John Richardson (1837-1862) who died unmarried aged 25. 5) Joseph Proctor Richardson born in 1839, who did not marry. 6) Henry Richardson, born in 1840, who married Emma Crumney, the daughter of the Stokesley doctor, at

Stokesley in 1864. 7) Arthur Richardson, born in 1841, who married Ellen Sophia Messent at Islington in 1870. 8) Sarah Jane Richardson, born in 1842, who married William Wood at Skelton in 1870.

In 1816 the estate was recorded as 112 acres, also with a tanyard of 24 acres. By the time of the 1846 Tithe Map, the estate had increased to 157 acres, and by 1851 to 300 acres, with the 1851 census showing John and Hannah employed eleven farm labourers and five domestic servants. John Richardson was quoted by Anne Boyce as claiming of Langbaurgh that “This is t’canniest place we have seen in all our travels.” It seems that John had intended to leave the estate in the hands of his second son John, since the eldest son, William, had an independent career and was, presumably, not interested in farming. However his son John died in 1862, and John senior sold the farm to G W Wynne, but remained living there as a tenant. He still owned other property in Ayton, as shown by the 1863 Poor Relief Assessment:

- Land off Stokesley Lane and Oil Mill Garth, 9 acres - The Grange farmhouse and land, 54 acres - Mill land, 23 acres - Flint quarry and house at Wood End Quarry, rateable value £48 - Oil Mill and cottage, Low Oil Mill, rateable value £6. Henry Richardson (1741-1818) had owned the Low Mill,

but died without children and the property had eventually become part of the Proctor Trust after William Proctor died in 1855. Presumably John acquired this through his marriages into the Proctor family.

- Four houses in Stokesley Lane. - Lonsdale Farm of 51 acres.

In the 1872 Land Ownership Survey, John Richardson owned 220 acres in Great Ayton; he was the only Richardson listed. John Richardson died in 1881 and Langbaurgh the . 21 Edwin Backhouse Richardson Edwin Backhouse Richardson was living at Langbaurgh Hall at the end of the nineteenth century, although Anne Boyce claimed, apparently incorrectly, that Langbaurgh had been sold by John Richardson in 1881. Edwin later moved to Potto Hall. 22 Other Richardsons There are several references to other Richardsons in Ayton, which are difficult to place in the above narrative. The Richardsons associated with the All Saints Church are clearly not Quakers. Anne Boyce commented (in a note probably written about 1870) “Other members of the same family, Christopher and Nicholas Richardson, resided at Ayton. They were probably descended from an elder branch. They were never connected in any way with the Society of Friends.”

1) Nicholas Richardson, churchwarden in 1742. This is probably the Nicholas Richardson whose death in 1764 is recorded in the Parish Register.

2) William Richardson, churchwarden in 1761. 3) An entry in the 1785 Overseers’ Book records that William Richardson proposed a motion that the old

School House was rebuilt and a Poor House added. The cost was met by eleven men of landed property each contributing £100. This is presumably an Anglican William Richardson.

4) Overseers’ Book 1794 William Richardson was listed as an Old Overseer. 5) 1811-12 Churchwardens’ Accounts: “To Sarah Richardson for macking two crecket covers 0-0-6” 6) Death of Isabella Richardson, age 96, on 21 June 1843 at Great Ayton.

References The Annals of the Cleveland Richardsons and their Descendants, compiled from family manuscripts, etc. George Richardson Unpublished, but printed in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1850 History of Ayton School The Jubilee Committee Great Ayton, 1891 Records of a Quaker Family: the Richardsons of Cleveland Anne Ogden Boyce Published in 1889. Cleveland Village, being notes on Ayton-in-Cleveland Robert Kettlewell 1938 George and Robert Stephenson, the railway revolution L T C Rolt Longman, London, 1960 Great Ayton, a History of the Village, 2nd edition Dan O’Sullivan D O’Sullivan, Great Ayton, 1996 Eight Centuries of Milling in North East Yorkshire John K Harrison North York Moors National Park Authority, Helmsley, 2001 Banking in Yorkshire W C E Hartley Dalesman Books, Clapham, 1975 Quakerism in Cleveland 1651-2002 Donald Gill Friends’ Meeting House, Great Ayton

Biographical Dictionary of British Quakers in Commerce and Industry 1775-1920 Edward H Milligan Sessions Book Trust, York, 2007 www.web.ukonline.co.uk/benjaminbeck/richardson Ben Beck was born in 1951 at St Albans, and currently lives in South East London. He is commissioning editor for Quaker Connections, the magazine of the Quaker Family History Society. His family tree includes Richardsons.

Appendix 1: Richardsons in the Ayton Parish Registers 1600-1812 There are a great many entries of baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish registers. Richardsons recorded here would not be Quakers. Names other than Richardson have been omitted. There are sufficient entries for Ritcherdson, Richinson, and other variations to assume that they are separate families, and not occasional mis-spellings. Note that until 1752, when Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar, the New Year started on Lady Day, 25 March. 1603 Birth of John, son of Robert Richardson, christened on 12 September. Birth of Agnes, daughter of Phillip Richardson, christened on 20 March. Death of Christopher Richardson, buried on 24 January, and his wife, buried on 18 January. With both deaths occurring within a week, the cause is possibly an infectious disease. There were 16 deaths in Ayton that year, compared with 9 in 1601 and 6 in 1605. 1605 Birth of Elizabeth, daughter of Phillip Richardson, christened on 16 June. Birth of William, son of Thomas Richardson, christened on 14 July. Birth of John, son of John Richardson, christened on 1 December. Marriage of John Richardson and Isabela Levens, on 26 November. The John Richardson christened on 1 December could have been their first child, taking his father’s name. 1607 Birth of Thomas, son of Thomas Richardson, christened on 21 September. Birth of Thomas and Isabela, son and daughter of Phillip Richardson, christened on 11 October. Marriage of Thomas Richardson and Anna Fox on 25 November. Death of Christopher Richardson, buried on 23 August. Death of Robert Richardson, buried on 8 September. Death of Nicholas Richardson, buried on 1 January. 1608 Marriage of Solomon Lofthouse and Elizabeth Richardson on 6 October. Death of Isabella Richardson, buried on 2 April. This could have been the one-year old daughter of Phillip Richardson. Death of Anna Richardson, buried on 29 August. This could be Anna Fox who married Thomas Richardson in the previous year. 1610 Birth of Anna, daughter of Nicholas Richardson, christened on 23 November. Marriage of Nicholas Richardson and Beatrix Saunderson, on 22 July. 1617 Birth of Thomas Richardson, son of Jacob Richardson, christened on 7 December. Marriage of Jacob Richardson and Elizabeth Mason on 26 August. The Thomas Richardson above may be their first child, born less than four months after the wedding. Death of Beatrix Richardson, buried on 18 June. Possibly the death of Beatrix Saunderson, who had married Nicholas Richardson in 1610. Death of Jacob Richardson, buried on 25 August. This may be the father of the Jacob Richardson above who married the following day and had a son Thomas Jacob in December. 1625 Birth of Jacob, son of Nicholas Richardson, christened on 9 October.

Marriage of Christopher Young and Margaret Richardson on 2 May. In the 1658 Enclosure Agreement Henry Young would acquire 30 acres immediately to the east of Old Langbaurgh, and bounded by land owned by John Richardson, Christopher Richardson and Robert Richardson. Death of Christopher Richardson, buried on 2 September. Death of Maria Richardson, buried on 6 October. 1631 Birth of Nicholas, son of Robert Richardson, christened on 12 February. Birth of George, son of Nicholas Richardson, christened on 12 February. Marriage of Robert Masterman and Margery Richardson on 6 November. The Mastermans of Little Ayton were yeoman farmers and tanners. Rather oddly, this marriage does not appear in The Pedigree of the Masterman Family of Little and Great Ayton in Cleveland, Yorkshire, published in 1914. Nor does Robert appear in the family trees, although there are references to a Robert Masterman living in Little Ayton. This marriage would have brought together two of the important farming and tanning families in Ayton. Death of John Richardson, buried on 16 February. 1632 Birth of Margaret, daughter of Christopher Richardson, christened on 9 January. Marriage of Thomas Richardson and Jane Masterman on 29 May. Another marriage between these two families, and again an event not appearing in The Pedigree of the Masterman Family of Little and Great Ayton in Cleveland, Yorkshire, published in 1914. Marriage of Thomas Balmer and Ann Richardson on 18 September. 1636 Birth of Anna, daughter of Christopher Richardson, baptised 8 April. Birth of Robert, son of Robert Richardson, baptised 28 February. Marriage of Francis Moss and Ann Richardson on 29 November. Thomas Richardson senior was churchwarden this year. He could not write his name. 1638 Death of Alice, daughter of Jacob Richardson, buried on 6 February. 1662 Birth of John, son of Robert Richardson, baptised on 5 February. Marriage of Christopher Richardson and Isabell Teasdale on 26 December. 1664 Issobel, daughter of George Richardson, baptised on 20 May. Death of Robert Richardson, buried on 24 June. 1665 Birth of Mary, daughter of James Richardson, baptised on 27 August. 1666 John, son of Thomas Richardson, baptised on 20 August. This could be ‘Old Johnny of Langbaurgh’, brother of William Richardson? William was born about 1660, and would have been baptised in the Church of England, but the records are missing for that year. In the 1673 Hearth Tax, Thomas Richardson had one hearth at Great Ayton. Death of Mary Richardson, buried on 5 February. 1667 Birth of Elizabeth, daughter of James Richardson, baptised on 15 March.

Birth of Elizabeth, daughter of George Richardson, baptised on 24 March. Death of Robert Richardson, buried on 14 November. 1668 Death of Mary Richardson, buried in December. Death of Thomas Richardson. 1669 Marriage of Richard Richardson and Anna Cornforth on 22 June. 1670 Death of Nicholas Richardson junior, buried on 23 December. 1671 Birth of Marie, daughter of Philip Richardson, baptised on 27 February. Marriage of Philip Richardson and Margaret Taylor on 4 May. Marriage with licence of Parcivall Fawcet and Margere Richardson on 6 March. 1672 Birth of Marie, daughter of George Richardson, baptised on 28 April. Death of Robert Richardson, buried on 6 October. 1673 Birth of Jean, daughter of James Richardson, baptised on 4 April. Birth of Cicilie, daughter of Robert Richardson, baptised on 5 March. Death of Thomas Richardson, buried on 12 March. Death of Jean, daughter of James Richardson, buried 15 March. 1675 Death of Richard, son of James Richardson, buried 20 October. 1676 Birth of William, son of George Richardson, baptised on 14 July. Birth of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Richardson, baptised on 27 July. Death of Christopher Richardson, buried on 26 May. 1677 1678 Death of Mary, wife of Nicholas Richardson, buried 17 June. Birth of Ann, daughter of George Richardson, baptised on 11 June. 1679 1680 Birth of James, son of George Richardson, baptised on 2 May. Death of Sarah, wife of John Richardson junior, buried 27 October. 1681 Birth of Christopher, son of Nicholas Richardson, baptised on 26 July.

1682 Birth of William, son of Philip Richardson, baptised on 28 March. 1683, 1684 1685 Birth of John, son of Philip Richardson, baptised on 29 March. Death of John, son of Philip Richardson, buried on 19 April. Presumably the child born above. 1686 Birth of Margaret, daughter of George Richardson, baptismal date not legible. 1704 Marriage of (name illegible) Richardson and Elizabeth Lott on 26 November 1706 Death of George Richardson, buried on 30 July. 1707 Birth of Christopher, son of Christopher Richardson, baptised 18 November. 1708 Birth of John, son of Roger Richardson, baptised 31 May. Death of John, son of Roger Richardson, buried on 1 June. Death of Nicholas Richardson of Little Ayton, buried on 8 March. In the 1673 Hearth Tax Nicholas Richardson of Little Ayton had one hearth. 1713 Birth of Sarah, daughter of Christopher Richardson, baptised 12 April. 1714 Death of Ann Richardson, buried on 24 April. 1716 Death of Ann, wife of Nicholas Richardson, buried on 7 May. 1718 Death of Mary Richardson, buried on 31 July. Perhaps unmarried since no husband mentioned. Could be Mary Richardson (1685-1718), daughter of William and Elizabeth Richardson, who married John Ward of Whitby in 1707. Marriage of William Richardson and Margaret Burton, both of this parish, by virtue of banns published 18 November. 1719 Birth of William, son of William Richardson, baptised 12 April. Death of William , son of William Richardson, buried on 19 May. 1721 Birth of Hannah, daughter of William Richardson, tanner, baptised 24 August. This William Richardson is presumably also the father of William born in 1719. He is described as a tanner, but the William Richardson (1700-1794) as recorded

by Ann Boyce did not marry until 1722. So this is a different William, possibly the son of Philip born in 1682, or the son of George, born 1676, both listed above. 1722 Birth of Christopher, son of William Richardson, tanner, baptised on 19 August. Death of Philip Richardson, yeoman, buried on 23 May. Death of Christopher Richardson, buried on 11August. Death of John Richardson, tanner, buried on 22 September. 1723 Birth of James, son of Joseph Richardson, tanner, baptised on 28 April. Marriage of John Hall and Ann Richardson on 8 May. 1728 Marriage of John Richardson and Elizabeth Calvert, both of this parish, bands published 4 November. 1733 Marriage of Joseph Kendrow and Margaret Richardson, banns 15 September. 1734 Death of Christopher Richardson junior, buried December 28. 1737 Marriage of William Barker and Elizabeth Richardson both of the parish of Kirkdale, licence granted by Rev Mr Hide 11 July. 1738 Death of Ann Richardson, buried on 14 November. 1743 Death of John Richardson, buried on 26 April. 1746 Birth of Mary, daughter of Christopher Richardson, yeoman, baptised on 16 November. Birth of Ann, daughter of William Richardson, labourer, baptised on 11 January. 1748 Birth of Hannah, daughter of William Richardson, baptised on 8 February. 1749 Birth of Elizabeth, daughter of Christopher Richardson, baptised 31 July. 1751 Birth of Margaret, daughter of William Richardson, baptised 22 September. Birth of Hannah, daughter of Christopher Richardson, baptised 8 February. 1752 Birth of John, son of James Richardson, baptised 30 July. 1754 Birth of William, son of William Richardson, baptised 11 June.

1755 Birth of Margaret, daughter of Christopher Richardson, baptised 7 July. 1757 Birth of James, son of William Richardson, labourer, baptised 1 June. In this year William Rowland, weaver, and Sarah Moore, spinster, were married. William Richardson was witness. 1758 Marriage of Robert Thompson of Hilton and Margaret Richardson of Ayton, married by banns 26 June. 1759 Birth of Christopher, son of Christopher Richardson, baptised 1 August. 1760 Birth of Eleanor, daughter of William Richardson, labourer, baptised on 2 August. 1763 Birth of Elisabeth, daughter of Christopher Richardson, yeoman, baptised on 8 January. Death of Elisabeth, daughter of Christopher Richardson, buried 1 February. In this year William Hill, yeoman of Ayton, married Margaret Bennison, spinster of Ayton. Christopher Richardson was a witness. 1764 Death of Nicholas Richardson, buried on 10 September. 1766 Marriage of John Fordy, manservant of Ayton and Anne Richardson, spinster of Ayton, on 13 May. 1773 In this year Thomas banks, bachelor and shoemaker of Ayton, married Mary Farrow, spinster of Ayton on 13 September. William Richardson was a witness. 1775 Marriage of Christopher Richardson and Jane Parkin, both of the parish, banns published 4 June. 1777 Death of Eleanor Richardson, spinster, buried on 25 June. 1778 Death of William Richardson, gelder, buried on 5 March. Marriage of William Richardson, bachelor and servant of Ayton, and Isabel Jackson, spinster of Ormesby, married by licence (no date given but would have been in May). 1780 Birth of Mary, daughter of William Richardson junior, labourer, baptised on 4 April. 1781 Death of Dorothy Richardson, widow, buried on 27 February. 1783 Birth of Anne, daughter of William Richardson junior, labourer, baptised on 19 February.

Death of Margaret, daughter of William Richardson, labourer, buried on 7 April. 1786 Birth of William, son of William Richardson junior, labourer, baptised on 31 March. 1787 Death of Jane Richardson, widow, buried on 29 November. 1788 Birth of Ralph and Nelly, to William Richardson junior, labourer, baptised on 8 April. 1790 Birth of Thomas, son of Thomas Richardson, labourer, baptised on 22 May. 1791 Birth of Jackson, son of William Richardson junior, labourer, baptised on 3 April. 1794 Birth of John, son of William Richardson junior, labourer, baptised on 27 March. 1796 Marriage of Christopher Richardson, bachelor of Ayton, and Elizabeth Lamb, spinster of Ayton, married by licence on 8 December. 1797 Birth of Thomas, son of William Richardson, day labourer, baptised on 3 May. 1798 Birth of Mary, daughter of Christopher Richardson junior, baptised on 24 May. 1800 Birth of Hannah, daughter of Christopher and Elizabeth Richardson, gentleman, baptised on 28 May. Death of Elizabeth, wife of Christopher Richardson Esqr, buried on 10 September. Death of William Richardson, labourer, buried on 29 September. In this year William Bowes married Roseana Wilson, both of Ayton. Christopher Richardson was a witness. 1801 Death of Eleanor Richardson, widow, buried on 25 January. 1804 Marriage of Christopher Richardson, widower of Great Ayton, and Sarah Jackson, widow of Great Ayton, married by licence from Stokesley on 3 September. 1806 Marriage of Ralph Richardson and Mary Williamson, both of Ayton, married by licence from Stokesley on 7 September. Marriage of James Richardson and Sarah Noton, both of Ayton, on 25 December. 1807 Birth of James, son of James and Sarah Richardson, mariner, baptised 13 October.

Birth of John, son of Ralph and Mary Richardson , labourer, baptised on 15 December. Death of James Richardson, labourer, killed by falling from a cart, buried on 7 November. 1808 Birth of Williamson, son of Ralph and Mary Richardson, labourer, baptised on 11 April. Death of James, son of James and Sarah Richardson, mariner, buried on 28 July. He would have been nine months old. 1809 Birth of Elizabeth, daughter of James and Sarah Richardson, mariner, baptised on 20 October. 1811 Birth of Jane, daughter of Ralph Richardson, labourer, and his wife Mary, baptised on 23 February. Birth of James, daughter of James and Sarah Richardson, mariner, baptised on 12 November. 1812 Birth of James, son of Ralph and Mary Richardson, labourer, baptised on 9 December. Death of Christopher Richardson Esqr, buried on 27 December.

Appendix 2: Richardsons in the Hearth Tax returns for Ayton Great Ayton: Richardson, Christopher 1662 = 1 1664 = 3 1670 = 3 1673 = 3 Richardson, Elizabeth 1673 = 1 Richardson, John 1662 = 1 1664 = 2 1670 = 2 1673 = 4 Richardson, John junior 1662 = 1 Richardson, Mary 1664 = 1 1673 = 1 Richardson, Mary widow 1673 = 1 Richardson, Phillip 1673 = 1 Richardson, Robert 1662 = 1 1664 = 1 1673 = 1 Richardson, Thomas 1664 = 1 1670 = 2 Richardson, Widdow 1662 = 1 Little Ayton: Richardson, George 1673 = 1 Richardson, James 1673 = Disch Richardson, Jane 1673 = 1 Richardson, Nicholas 1662 = 1 1664 = 1 1673 = 1 Richardson, Richard 1662 = 1 1664 = 1 1673 = Disch Richardson, Robert 1664 = 1 Richardson, Thomas 1662 = 1 1664 = 1